Letterform Archive

Letterform Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit library, museum, and educational institution dedicated to serving existing and potential practitioners, students, and admirers of the letter arts.

Founded in 2014 and opened to the public in 2015, the San Francisco-based organization holds an extensive collection of 30,000 items ranging in age over 2,000 years. Committed to being an accessible resource for the local and global letter arts communities, the Archive is a center for inspiration—a place where visitors can access important works of graphic design and typography, as well as encounter objects and ephemera from throughout the history of written communication.

Founded by Rob Saunders, a collector of the letter arts for over 40 years, Letterform Archive was initially conceived of as a place to share his passion with the public. Over the last year the Archive has grown quickly, expanding not only its holdings, but its public offerings as well. It is now an active educational resource for students and practitioners in the field, offering courses and workshops centered on letterforms, some in conjunction with The Cooper Union in NYC. The Archive also hosts lectures by visiting artists and designers from all over the world, offers public events such as brunches and receptions on-site to celebrate new acquisitions or out-of-town guests, and curates exhibitions of its holdings both on-site and at outside institutions.

Letterform Archive's collection includes 30,000 physical and digital artifacts in a variety of formats including books, periodicals, posters, maquettes, drawings, prints and related ephemera, as well as a robust reference collection. The collection showcases the history and diversity of letterforms, from their early appearance in clay cuneiform tablets, to illuminated manuscripts and handwriting textbooks, to early printed books, hand lettered signs, type foundry specimens, Avant-Garde typographic experiments, mid-century graphic design, prints, concrete and visual poetry, contemporary artists’ books, and much more. In 2016, the Archive will begin to issue a range of publications (including monographs, facsimiles, and portfolios) on topics in the letter arts.

Letterform Archive is open to the public by appointment, 4 days a week. To schedule an appointment, please click here.